It’s only likely that eBay will investigate description theft and go after you if the seller whose description you took actually takes the time to report you. When you’re competing with that seller directly, though, don’t be surprised if they do turn you in – after all, you’re their competitor!
Think of how you’d feel if someone was re-using a description that you took the time to research and fine-tune for the most sales – and not only that, but they were using it against you, to list competing items. That’s why other sellers don’t want their descriptions taken.
But I Don’t Like Writing Descriptions.Instead of taking another seller’s descriptions, you can use the stock descriptions that eBay have on file for many items, especially things like CDs, DVDs and books. Simply enter the item’s unique ID number (an ISBN for a book, for example), and the listing will be created for you. If you can’t find any unique ID, then you can also search by name to find a matching item.
Once you’ve found your item, you’ll get a listing with all the technical details on the item, and often a stock picture, too. This is called ‘pre-filled item information’, and eBay licence it from big databases on your behalf.
It really is worth taking the time to write your own descriptions, though, as many people will be listing items using the pre-filled information. Remember that if you sell the same things often then you can re-use your own descriptions as many times as you want. You can keep your own database, re-using the ones that get high prices and re-writing the ones that don’t. Writing descriptions is the biggest way that you have control over your auctions.
It’s easy to keep discovering new things about eBay, isn’t it? So many of the rules and functions are completely hidden away that sometimes it feels like unravelling one big mystery – and, for me at least, that’s a big part of the fun. In the next email, we’ll take a look at how to make more money with eBay’s affiliate program.
How to Make More Money with eBay’s Affiliate Program.
If you’ve been on the web for a while, the chances are that at some time or other you will have taken part in an affiliate program. They generally work by giving you a URL to send people to their site that contains your affiliate number, and then giving you a small amount for each person who comes in using your link and signs up or buys something.
It pays a lot. Each user who follows your link to eBay, signs up and then bids on anything within 30 days will earn you $20. Most affiliate programs will only give you something like 10% of the user’s first purchase. What’s more, for each existing eBay user who clicks through from your site and then places a bid or buys something, you’ll get 10c.
You can be your own affiliate. If you just link to your own auctions with your affiliate link number from your own website, then you’re getting money without sending buyers to anyone except yourself. There aren’t many affiliate programs that can say that.